An Afghan policewoman gunned down a US military adviser inside the Interior Ministry today. The insider, or green-on-blue, attack is the first in nearly six weeks, and the first recorded by a female member of the Afghan security forces. The policewoman, who was identified as Nargis, is "assigned to the gender and equality department" at the Afghan Interior Ministry, according to Pajhwok Afghan News. "She fired one shot at the advisor, a construction engineer, in the head at close range," according to the Afghan news agency. The policewoman's motivation for shooting the civilian adviser is not know. She is...

Washington is abuzz about the Fiscal Cliff, a combination of tax increases and modest cuts in spending growth. Since the Old Media and most of Washington always favor tax increases, the fear must be over spending. But even with the cuts, Washington will remain overfunded. So, what is not to like about the Fiscal Cliff? The Cliff allows for tax rates to return to those Pres. Clinton approved in the early 1990's. Most taxpayers will see their rates increase and some people who now pay no income tax will have to begin paying. In a 2007 primary debate, Pres. Obama...

It has long been known that volcanic activity can cause short-term variations in climate. Now, researchers at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Germany), together with colleagues from Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) have found evidence that the reverse process also occurs: Climate affects volcanic activity. Their study is now online in the international journal "Geology". In 1991, it was a disaster for the villages nearby the erupting Philippine volcano Pinatubo. But the effects were felt even as far away as Europe. The volcano threw up many tons of ash and other particles into the atmosphere causing...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Tammy Wilson is referencing scripture, 1 Samuel Chapter 16, Verse 7, and looking through her purse to find her Bible. Turns out it's in her work bag, which just means she'll go from memory. "It's not the countenance of a man nor the height," she begins. "But the heart." And then Russell Wilson's mother begins to speak of the difference between fact and truth. The fact that her son, the Seahawks' quarterback, stands short of 6 feet does not define the truth of his abilities. And the fact her husband was once feared brain dead did not...

These libs are out of control. One of them is Nicole Lapin who is a former CNN financial reporter who wants to ban all semi-automatic weapons because they ‘can be turned into machine guns’. Yeah, she really said that. She also said that if the Sandy Hook shooter had walked in with a handgun, that he could have only killed 2 people. Yeah, just like in the 1800s? Oh wait, those were six-shooters. Well, seems clear she is far more beautiful than she is bright.

Private contractors capable of helping the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) prepare for potential future actions in Syria still are being sought by the agency. USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) last week extended until Dec. 28 the deadline for Personal Service Contract (PSC) applications for two positions based in Turkey: OTI Country Representative-Syria (Solicitation #SOL-OTI-13-000010) and OTI Deputy Country Representative-Syria (Solicitation #SOL-OTI-13-000011). USAID in 1994 created OTI: as a distinct operating unit within USAID to help local partners advance peace and democracy in priority conflict-prone countries. Seizing critical windows of opportunity, OTI works on the ground to provide...

YouTubeIf I were the Devil . . . I mean, if I were the Prince of Darkness, I would of course, want to engulf the whole earth in darkness. I would have a third of its real estate and four-fifths of its population, but I would not be happy until I had seized the ripest apple on the tree, so I should set about however necessary to take over the United States. I would begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: “Do as you please.”...

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory ran a Molten Salt Reactor for over 55,000 hours from 1970 to 1976. It used molten thorium fluoride salts as fuel, which in its liquid state is a clear blue liquid. Thorium is fertile, not fissile, so the Oak Ridge reactor achieved criticality with the introduction of U-239 and later U-233 as a source of neutron radiation. A Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) operates at atmospheric pressure, maintaining a peak temperature of 1,300 degrees F. A LFTR will not go kerpow like Fukushima Daiichi because you do not need power to cool fuel rods...

All you need to know as an American politician or bureaucrat is that Thorium is bad, because it is radioactive. Thorium was discovered in 1828 by the Norwegians who named it after the God of Thunder. At one time, annual U.S production of brightly glowing thorium mantles in gas lamps stood at 40 million units. But as we in the U.S. matured from a manufacturing powerhouse, we learned that nearly all naturally occurring thorium exists as thorium-232, which undergoes alpha decay with a half-life of about 14.05 billion years. Alpha decay consists of two neutrons and two protons, basically...

We have a lot of stupid people the United States governments. ItÂ’s not their fault. The creators of our Constitution designed a system that should rarely entangle itself in highly profitable transactions that involve innovative products or strategies. As a result, our economy historically bids the most driven and intelligent away from government jobs. Government, then, finds a governing formula that works, and sticks to it, often no matter what. China, as every American senses, differs. There, the government bears no shame in announcing that it is the sole source of all beneficial economic activity. In this way, the...

HOUSTON – Investigators are searching for answers after a suspected drunken driver was found shot dead after he allegedly slammed into a family's truck on a rural Houston-area road, killing two young brothers. 12-year-old David Barajas and his 11-year-old brother, Caleb, were helping their father push his disabled truck down the road when 21-year-old Jose Banda allegedly slammed into them from behind, MyFoxHouston.com reports. Neighbors say they heard gun shots minutes after the crash. Police responding to the crash found Banda shot in the head, but no gun at the scene. Banda and both boys died.

A century ago next year, one of the most extraordinary events in the modern history of Christianity took place there. In the summer of 1913 the Aegean was penetrated not by pleasure-craft, but by the navy of the Russian tsar. A gunboat and later two transporters, complete with a party of marines, sailed up to a giant monastic house. A Russian archbishop tried negotiating with a bitterly divided community. When that failed, the troops opened up with a water-cannon, directed at the cells of monks on the losing side in a theological argument. For six years the Russian monks of...

Al-Jazeera is reporting that medics treating casualties in a rebel neighborhood in the city of Homs believe that some of the wounded were victims of a poison gas attack. Here's the video. (Warning: The video graphically shows a victim struggling to breathe.) Here's another video with more apparent victims of a gas attack. Seven people have died in Homs after they inhaled a poisonous gas sprayed by government forces in a rebel-held neighbourhood, activists said. Activists also told Al Jazeera that scores of others were affected in al-Bayyada neighbourhood. Side effects reported include nausea, relaxed muscles, blurred vision, and breathing...

A three-month investigation into academic fraud at the University of North Carolina revealed that not only student-athletes were given added academic benefits within the school's African and Afro-American Studies department. Rather, students at large benefited from anomalies specific to the department, such as unauthorized grade changes, forged faculty signatures on grade rolls and limited or no class time. "This was not an athletic scandal," former North Carolina Governor Jim Martin told UNC's board of trustees. "It was an academic scandal, which is worse." The independent investigation, headed by Martin, shows that irregularities in the African and Afro-American Studies department went...

Russian military advisers are manning some of Syria's more sophisticated air defences – something that would complicate any future US-led intervention, the Guardian has learned.The advisers have been deployed with new surface-to-air systems and upgrades of old systems, which Moscow has supplied to the Assad regime since the Syrian revolution broke out 21 months ago.The depth and complexity of Syria's anti-aircraft defences mean that any direct western campaign, in support of a no-fly zone or in the form of punitive air strikes against the leadership, would be costly, protracted and risky. The possibility of Russian military casualties in such a...

It may seem strange for a Jew to write about his favorite Christmas memories, but my happiest are from Christmas Eve in the early 1960s, in Johnstown, the town where I grew up in upstate New York. I usually helped out late in my father’s store, wrapping packages and ringing up sales, work that required no familiarity with the merchandise – ladies clothing – of which I had none. I can still make change in my head, but, alas, have lost my package-wrapping skills over the years. Even though I knew there’d be no presents waiting for me under the...

News that the Treasury Department's Inspector General has opened an investigation to determine whether three solar companies inflated the cost of their work to increase the payments they would receive from the government should send shivers down the spine of the taxpayer-subsidized green energy industry.The Washington Post reports that SolarCity, SunRun and Sungevity have received subpoenas from the Treasury Department’s office of inspector general for financial records to justify more than $500 million in federal grants and tax credits the firms tapped for performing work. The probe seeks to determine whether the companies accurately reported the market value of...

Word For The Day, Monday, 12/24/12 In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day". jubilate; verb : rejoice Etymology: Latin jubilatus, past participle of jubilare; akin to Middle High German jĹ« (exclamation of joy), Greek iygÄ“ shout First Known Use: circa 1641 Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the Word for the Day in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day. The Review threads are linked for your edification. ;-) Practice makes perfect.....post...

Scholarly studies have found that the more hospitals that exist in a country, the more people die in hospitals. This alarming conclusion shows that the United States, with the highest number of hospitals, has the most people die in hospitals. Countries with few hospitals have few die in them, a country fortunate enough to be without hospitals would have no one die in a hospital. This leads to the inescapable conclusion that we should ban hospitals in order to prevent hospital deaths.

Ted Kennedy Jr. is seriously considering a run for the US Senate seat of John Kerry if, as expected, the Massachusetts senator becomes Secretary of State. Kennedy's brother, former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy, told the Boston Globe that leading Democrats, including Senator Charles Schumer of New York, want his brother to consider a campaign to replace Kerry and hold the seat for Democrats.

Ted Kennedy Jr. is seriously considering a run for the US Senate seat of John Kerry if, as expected, the Massachusetts senator becomes Secretary of State. Kennedy's brother, former Rhode Island Rep. Patrick Kennedy, told the Boston Globe that leading Democrats, including Senator Charles Schumer of New York, want his brother to consider a campaign to replace Kerry and hold the seat for Democrats.

The tea party movement has been nearly invisible in the intensive lobbying campaign over the “fiscal cliff,” even as Congress and the White House debate the issues of government spending and national debt that are at the core of the movement’s identity. In many ways, the tea party was made for this moment. The grass-roots opposition to President Obama’s agenda that arose in 2009 has been so focused on fiscal concerns that leaders once prevented speakers at tea party rallies from even discussing abortion and other social issues. And in fact, it is the tea party that helped bring the...

GALVESTON, Tex. — Angelica Gonzales marched through high school in Goth armor — black boots, chains and cargo pants — but undermined her pose of alienation with a place on the honor roll. She nicknamed herself after a metal band and vowed to become the first in her family to earn a college degree. “I don’t want to work at Walmart” like her mother, she wrote to a school counselor. Weekends and summers were devoted to a college-readiness program, where her best friends, Melissa O’Neal and Bianca Gonzalez, shared her drive to “get off the island” — escape the prospect...

The following organizations have lent monetary, grassroots or some other type of direct support to anti-gun organizations. In many instances, these organizations lent their name in support of specific campaigns to pass anti-gun legislation such as the March 1995 HCI "Campaign to Protect Sane Gun Laws." Many of these organizations were listed as "Campaign Partners," for having pledged to fight any efforts to repeal the Brady Act and the Clinton "assault weapons" ban. All have officially endorsed anti-gun positions. snip=========== Anti-Gun Corporations/Corporate Heads The following listing includes the most prominent national corporations that have lent their corporate support to gun...

According to Peter Schmidt in the Chronicle of Higher Education, yet another individual working in higher education has been demolished for saying the wrong thing about homosexuality. The basis on which to define people as "anti-gay" has, however, taken a turn to the absurd (and eerie). Unlike Angela McCaskill, who was nearly fired from Gallaudet University for signing a petition on gay marriage, Crystal Dixon of the University of Toledo was fired for writing an editorial in a local newspaper. She referred to Exodus and mentioned people who chose to leave the gay lifestyle. For this column I will stick...

A news roundup from today’s Sydney Morning Herald, giving another bracing insight into the success of our immigration program. Item one: When two men in traditional Middle Eastern dress sat down with the owner of a Bankstown restaurant recently, they were after only one thing. At first they shared a hookah pipe and chatted amiably about religion, but the conversation quickly turned to extortion: they wanted $50,000 in exchange for ‘’protection’’. The terrified restaurant owner told Fairfax Media they asked him a menacing question he was sure was rhetoric: ‘’Have you heard of Brothers 4 Life?’’ It’s a question many...

Why do the innocent suffer? It's a question as old as the Book of Job and as current as today's headlines. Many criticized prominent evangelicals like James Dobson and Mike Huckabee for claiming last week's Connecticut school massacre was God’s punishment of a morally disobedient nation, but don't expect such views to change. Scholars say the belief in divine retribution for personal and national transgressions not only goes back as far as the Bible's Book of Job, it’s also a concept fused into the American worldview. “This is a recurring pattern in American history since the Puritans,” said Barry Hankins,...

Last December, as you may remember, I went to my old neighborhood of Dyker Heights to share some of the more ostentatious seasonal displays with our readers. This year I decided to stay on the island and visit a local hair salon which was holding a toy drive for families who’ve been impacted by Hurricane Sandy, whose devastation encroached into nearly every part of Richmond County. This was an extraordinary event for a number of reasons, not the least being its rapid turnaround. To have planned and successfully executed a fully-catered party with live entertainment-including a DJ and magician-which hosted...

I know the Gov't can take private property for public purpose and for public "safety". Could they offer Compensation and take peoples guns "for public safety"? Do you think the Supreme Court would find this UnConstitutional? Any thoughts Freepers? I know My knowledge of the law is very limited......

Syria Live Blog 6 Seven people have died in Homs after they inhaled a "poisonous gas" used by government forces in a rebel-held neighbourhood, activists said.Activists also told Al Jazeera on Sunday night that scores of others were affected in al-Bayyada neighbourhood. Side effects reported include nausea, relaxed muscles, blurred vision, and breathing difficulties.Residents said they did not know the nature of the gas used."The situation is very difficult. We do not have enough facemasks. We don't know what this gas is but medics are saying it's something similar to Sarin gas," Raji Rahmet Rabbou, an activist in Homs, told...

President Barack Obama demands more stimulus spending to avoid the "fiscal cliff." Obama increased the national debt $6 trillion to $16 trillion. Yet the Democrats' 'cure for what ails ya' is even more spending. Obama demands around $75 billion in new spending to stimulate the economy in 2013. "Keynesian Economics" is the insane belief that the economy can be stimulated by government spending. It provides the excuse to depart from common sense that allows politicians to ignore the alarm bells. It is ludicrous mainly because our government doesn't have any money to spend. If the government had a surplus saved...

Jim Sleeper, a â€ślecturer in political scienceâ€ť at Yale, wrote the following in todayâ€™s Huffington Post: The astonishing â€śnew normalâ€ť of heavy gunfire that took hold in Newtown long before last weekâ€™s massacre only reinforces the parallel I drewÂ hereÂ last week between todayâ€™s gun enthusiasts and yesterdayâ€™s racial segregationists.â€¦ To understand what weâ€™re up against here, understand that many other gun enthusiasts think of themselves this way, too â€” and that they see their critics as moralists addled by silly delusions about human nature. They alone uphold honor against depravity: Southern segregationists thought their way of life necessary to channel the...

Islamist gunmen destroyed several tombs in Timbuktu on Sunday, residents said, days after the United Nations authorised African states to ready a force to take on al Qaeda-linked groups in Mali's northern desert zones. "Since 0800 (GMT) this morning, the Islamists have been destroying tombs again," Youssouf Toure, a resident of the ancient trading town, told Reuters by telephone. "(They are) targeting new ones and the ones they destroyed several months ago," he added. Residents said the attacks on traditional Sufi Islamic shrines were being carried out by about 15 heavily-armed fighters, some weilding pick axes. At least two previously...

It’s already been discussed that Barack Obama’s eulogy at Senator Inouy’s memorial in Washington DC was a tribute to himself and not the late Hawaiian senator. Obama spoke for 10 minutes about himself and his life story, barely mentioning the life of Senator Inouye. But it’s worse than that. Barack Obama distorted his life story in order to include Senator Inouye in his talk. Jack Cashill at American Thinker reported:

The majority of the world wants a godless and lawless existence (conservative and liberal) and desires for their lawless lives the fruits of RIGHTEOUSNESS by applying godless and lawless means (Rom. 10:2-4, 2 Peter 3:16, Jude 1:10). Even today, just as 2000 years ago the majority of the world still REJECTS Almighty God’s FREE GIFT of saving grace, redemption and ETERNAL LIFE which is found ONLY in Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:18-32). So when Christmas is in the air here in America... is it any wonder that the majority of Americans this season will be celebrating a Merry "X-Mas" and not...

Unfortunately, this doesn't make the news much, but almost every day Jews are being stoned by Arabs in Judea and Samaria. Here you an see how they ambush a convoy of army jeeps. The bad news is that this also happens to civilian cars, with mothers, elderly and children. Rocks can kill and seriously injure, yet the world media is silent.

Some interesting news has broken in the wake of the latest push for gun control by President Obama and Senate Democrats: Obama sends his kids to a school where armed guards are used as a matter of fact. The school, Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC, has 11 security officers and is seeking to hire a new police officer as we speak. If you dismiss this by saying, "Of course they have armed guards -- they get Secret Service protection," then you've missed the larger point. The larger point is that this is standard operating procedure for the school, period....

Christianity faces being wiped out of the “biblical heartlands” in the Middle East because of mounting persecution of worshippers, according to a new report. The study warns that Christians suffer greater hostility across the world than any other religious group. And it claims politicians have been “blind” to the extent of violence faced by Christians in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The most common threat to Christians abroad is militant Islam, it says, claiming that oppression in Muslim countries is often ignored because of a fear that criticism will be seen as “racism”. It warns that converts from Islam...

she was raped. ... Sabera is a resident of the Jaghori district of Ghazni province. About four months back, she was accused of having illicit relations with a 24-year old boy and was flogged under the orders of clergymen and local influential people in a field court. This matter drew serious reactions from the government of Afghanistan, the National Assembly and human rights organizations around the world. While talking to Sabera, I asked her what she was thinking when she was being flogged in front of hundreds of people? She answered, “They took me to a desert. There were many...

Despite nearing the end of his fourth season, quarterback Josh Freeman is dissolving before our very eyes. He had an incredibly deceiving 372 yards passing yards on Sunday. He also threw four more interceptions, for eight in two weeks, or as many as he had in his first 13 games this season. His head is full of mush. Maybe the Bucs should lock him up with a contract while the price is right. How does five years, $100,000 a year sound? Suddenly, No. 5 is a project again, the priority worry. I'm sure they're hidden somewhere, but there just aren't...

China’s new military transport plane exposed. And it looks like a C-17, An-70, A400M hybrid. Posted by Alert5 today, the following image shows the first photographs of China’s new four-engine military airlifter. The large military transport aircraft is allegedly designed Y-20 and, nose aside, its shape is almost identical to that shown in a series of artist’s impressions that have appeared on Chinese media outlets. Indeed, the aircraft depicted in the detailed renderings you can find in this post seems to be a turbojet clone of the Airbus A400M Atlas four-engine turboprop, whereas the one depicted on the ground in...

This time 31 years ago, December 23, 1981, President Ronald Reagan delivered a moving Oval Office address to the nation. The subject was Christmas and events in Poland. [ . . . ] It was a stirring moment, with the Poland drama the big story. Yet, there was another story behind the speech that isn’t remembered, but is likewise revealing. Reagan had started the speech with a wonderful opening about the reason for the season: the Christ child. . . . At this special time of year, we all renew our sense of wonder in recalling the story of the...

When National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun” the collective gasp from the media must have been heard for miles. These pitifully ignorant people don’t understand research and certainly have no intellectual curiosity. They went ballistic when confronted with the fact that they had to share responsibility for promoting a culture of violence and failing to honestly report the true damage Hollywood’s movies and rap music and “revolving door justice” have done especially to young people. The media savaged LaPierre...